What Happens Next
by hopeistheway
Summary: *Spoilers for IM3* Iron Man 3 left the audience with a rather large cliffhanger. With all of the suits gone along with the Arc Reactor, we're left with a single question; What happens next? This explains how Tony will return, because, let's face it- with the money Marvel is making per film, Tony's gonna suit up again. (In Avengers category b/c Bruce Banner's cameo at the end.)


_***MAJOR SPOILERS AND SEMI-LONG A/N***_

_**Hey, everyone. After disappearing for about... what, 2,3 years? I decided to post a little something for you guys. Don't worry, all you DP fans- I haven't abandoned my stories. Quite the contrary; I'm writing a huge one. Plus, for all of my old trashy ones, I'm just procrastinating. They'll be updated and edited... eventually. **_

_**So, Iron Man 3- I loved the movie to pieces! It was amazing, but close to the end, I kind of panicked, because, well, TONY FRIGGIN' GOT THE ARC REACTOR RIPPED OUT AND BLEW UP ALL HIS SUITS. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either. **_

_**Anyways... I wrote this because I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted him back in the suit! Iron Man couldn't just END there (though it would have been a spectacular ending). And I couldn't wait for the next Avengers movie to find out how they'd get Tony to suit up. I mean, I was kind of confused at the ending; did he just give up being Iron Man, or what? I mean... ? **_

_**ANYWAYS. Enjoy.**_

It was _weird._

It was really, _really_ weird.

He was normal, which was not normal. He just had this sense of _not-rightness_.

Because where the Arc Reactor once was, there was now flesh and his perfectly functioning heart.

It was _strange. _

It was really, _really_ strange.

He blew up all of his armor. (Well _most_ of them. All the others were destroyed thanks to the Mandarin. Well- the actual Mandarin, the crazy hot-head one, not the drunk one- _gah_. It was all just so dang confusing.) Something that was just so foreign- destroying practically four years worth of work- that the utter _strangeness_ of it all struck a chord in him when he woke up the next morning.

It was _surprising._

It was really, _really_ surprising.

The twist ending threw even _him_ off. He didn't exactly _regret_ his choices, but he didn't exactly feel as though he was honestly ready to make them, or if he chose correctly. He was just _surprised_ at himself, in all honesty... he didn't expect for things to pan out this way, especially because of the fact that he was the one who make it this way. (Actually, he never expected the whole Afghanistan incident either, so, touchee.)

So... _now_ what? He had only recently discovered that it was indeed the man that made the suit, and not vise versa. He was very confident in knowing that _he, Tony Stark, _ was the hero, and not _Iron Man, the armor. _But now he faced a slight problem...

Tony's hands twitched somewhat spazmaticly. His head throbbed. And he was about to _explode._ He was in his workshop in Stark Tower- his Malibu home was gone for what seemed like for good- and he simply sat in his swivel chair with clenched fists, numbly staring at them. AC/DC blared at full volume, enough to make even _his _eardrums hurt, but the music kept away intruders- the music bothered Pepper to know end. And Thor's daddy knew how he_ needed_ to be alone _right now_.

The music suddenly cut off. He frowned, looking up at the ceiling in what he absent-mindedly rationalized was JARVIS's general direction, opening his mouth to ask why his AI had stopped the song...

_Someone poked his shoulder._

"Tony-?"

He shrieked.

He whipped around, and he was about to _flipping punch-the-intruder's-face_-!

He blinked in sudden surprise, and his fist, centimeters from the person's face, suddenly slackened and dropped. He literally had to blink twice before he realized that _no, he was not hallucinating, _and that _yes, Bruce Banner was in front of him._

"Oh," he said rather vapidly, "Hey, Bruce."

His friend blinked right back at him, completely at a loss of how to react.

Then it hit him. Bruce, his _best friend_, was here. His mood turned giddy, and he all but tackled his friend to the ground. "Bruce! Buddy, pal, friend..."

Bruce couldn't hold back the chuckle that bubbled up inside of him, and hugged his friend back. "It's good to see you too, Tony."

Tony leaned into the hug, letting his friend know through the contact that he had missed him. "So, what brings you here, Brucie?" Tony asked casually as they broke apart. "They treating you alright in whatever foreign country you're helping out? Wait- did S.H.I.E.L.D. send you here-? Is someone after you? Do you need help?"

Bruce held his hands up in an attempt to calm Tony down. "No, no- everything's fine. I just heard on the news... Tony," he looked directly into his friend's chocolate brown eyes, "Are you okay?"

Tony looked tense, but at Bruce's question, his shoulders slumped, and he collapsed back onto the chair. He met his friend's dark brown orbs and sighed tiredly. "It's a long,_ long_ story." He turned back towards the desk, leaning on it and absently twiddling his thumbs, because he felt as though he wasn't really supposed to be tinkering anymore. Because the last time he tried, he ended up unconsciously making a flight stabilizer for a new suit.

"Tony," Bruce suddenly squirmed, "I also heard something about, well, the..."

Bruce trailed off, and Tony noticed where his eyes not-so-subtly trailed. For whatever reason, anger suddenly flared through Tony, and his face twisted into a PO'd scowl. He stood up from his chair and rounded on Bruce, his heart pounding in his ears. "Yeah," he spat, looking at his chest in disgust. "It's out. I'm one-hundred percent _normal_."

Bruce took a step back, a look of semi-surprise flitting across his face.

And as immediately came, the anger died out, and he felt guilt crawl up on him, because he knew that Bruce wanted to be normal more than anyone on Earth. "I-I'm sorry," Tony dragged his hand across his face. "I-I have anxiety issues. I'm kind of stressed out right now." His stomach flipped a bit as he admitted this quietly to Bruce. He didn't dare look up to see his friend's face, anticipating his reaction would be one of concern and worry. "You didn't deserve that. You didn't... You didn't do anything wrong." He muttered the last part, hoping his friend didn't notice the way his voice slightly cracked.

A hand found it's way to Tony's shoulder. Tony looked up in surprise, seeing Bruce's empathetic look. "Then I guess it's safe to say," Bruce spoke in a quiet voice, "that we both have anger management issues."

Tony let out a breathy, slightly hysterical laugh, and Bruce smiled grimly. "You wanna talk about it?"

Tony lightly took Bruce's hand and exited the workshop, leading him to one of the Stark Tower's many rooms. He steered them into a room down the hall, Bruce wordlessly complying, until they entered a sitting room. "Absolutely not. Now let's get comfortable... this story takes awhile."

After Tony got over being slightly pissed off at Bruce for nodding off during his story, the inevitable question came up. "So... what now?" Bruce questioned, after hearing the shortened version of the story.

Tony, at of habit, moved to make his hand go up to the Arc Reactor. He faltered and let it drop. The action didn't go unnoticed by Bruce, but he didn't comment. "I... I don't know."

But then the actual problem that had been haunting Tony came up. "So... the whole 'clean slate' thing- is... is this the end of Iron Man?"

Tony's stomach flipped, and he suddenly found his eyes were watering. He lowered his head, running a hand through his messy locks. "I-" he choked on the word, and swallowed thickly, trying to regain his composure. He found he couldn't, and he decided a different route.

"The Arc Reactor powered the suit." He said instead. Bruce gave him a pointed look that told him to continue. "And kept me alive. But with the miracles of modern-day science, I... I didn't really need it anymore." Tony sat up a bit taller, not quite meeting Bruce's gaze, but rather looking at his knees as he sat in front of him. "But I still... I didn't really... It was a _part of me,_ Bruce," his voice cracked again, and his burning eyes suddenly swept up as he met Bruce's soft ones. "And I wasn't ready to let go of it yet."

Bruce quietly urged him to go on with his silence.

"But after Pepper... She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can't stand to see her get hurt. I thought- I thought she _died_..." he broke off, and he recalled her scream as he failed to catch her. Saw the flames engulf her. Saw her disappear.

He was brought back to reality when he heard Bruce's earnest voice, "-Tony! Calm down, breathe!"

He heaved in a shuddering gasp, and had to force himself to suck in air. He tried to speak in little gasps, apologizing, say little truth-filled-nothings, like, "I-it's the anxiety... I-I'm not done with t-the treatment..."

Once he had calmed down enough, he bowed his head, lowering his face into his hands. "Jesus, Bruce. Everything is changing, and I _can't_ keep up anymore. I'm forcing myself to change with it for the better, but I just- I just _can't _anymore..."

He couldn't meet his friend's eyes again, and hot shame bubbled inside of him. His mask had slipped.

He suddenly sucked in another mighty breath and straightened, hoping to make up for the crack in his facade. "Anyways, the point is... I just can't keep her at a risk. The Arc Reactor- it was holding me back. I didn't need it anymore, and I just... I realized..."

"That the Arc Reactor wasn't a physical obstacle anymore... It was a mental one."

Bruce's quiet voice startled Tony, but he let out a breathy laugh at the simple, yet powerful statements. "Exactly. You couldn't be anymore right. It's good to have a fellow genius in the room."

They smiled a bit at each other for a bit at that, but the light atmosphere all too soon slipped away.

Tony closed tired eyes before continuing. "Getting rid of the Reactor was the final move. It meant I was starting over. No more suits. No more machines. No more nightmares coming to life."

Tony had to finish. "... But now that leaves one thing unanswered..."

Bruce understood. He always did. "... you don't know if you're ever going to suit up again." Bruce whispered, expecting it, but still shocked all the same.

Tony's shoulders drooped. He gazed into his friend's face, trying to get both of them to know what happened next. "I don't know _how_ to live anymore. 'Clean slate' can mean a whole lot of things."

Bruce simply gazed back. "How do you _want_ to live, Tony?"

Tony blinked at his friend in surprise. He hadn't really thought of how he wanted to live... just what would come next as he did. He chose his words very carefully. "I want to be a better person. I want to help people. But.. I also want to be there for Pepper."

"So, why can't you do both?"

"Because, Bruce," his eyes were wide with a slight edge of panic. "Being Iron Man puts everyone I care about at risk. Either I'm not Iron Man, and everyone close to me is safe- but the world isn't. And if I am Iron Man, then the world's safe, but not the ones I care about. Either way, I lose. Either way, someone gets hurt." He groaned. "Bruce, I want to save lives. But I can't sit on the sidelines, or work behind the screen. And if Iron Man disappears, so will a lot of people's lives. I was meant to be Iron Man, Bruce. I was meant to save lives."

Bruce sighed, and took Tony's hands. Tony looked down at the appendages in slight surprise, before looking back up at Bruce. "There was one part of the story I was also awake for, Tony. Besides the elevator," he amended, noticing Tony's slight scowl. "The little boy- Harvey- remember what he said to you?"

Tony numbly nodded, the words on his tongue, but not quite slipping out. So Bruce spoke for him.

"You're a mechanic, right?" He recited.

"Yeah," Tony said numbly.

"So _build something_."

Tony blinked. Four times. Suddenly everything was less hazy.

"... Everything's gone. Do I just... start from scratch?"

"... You really expect me to believe that_ all _of your work is gone with the suits?"

"... Right. But... Bruce, what about Pepper? I don't want to endanger her anymore."

"Sleep on it. I don't think you'll be having anymore nightmares."

Tony couldn't keep the small smile off his face, before it grew into a full blown, Stark-snarky grin.

"Thanks."

Tony and Bruce rose as one, and as one, they went off to do what anyone in their situation would have done. "To the shawarma joint?" Tony asked.

"To the shawarma joint." Bruce said with a knowing grin.

That night, the answers came to him in a blissful, nightmare-free dream.

He was Tony Stark. He built neat stuff. He had a great girl. And he was sleeping just fine, thank you very much. (Well, mostly. He still had some weird, sometimes terrifying dreams after staying up and doing drunk/shawarma filled science with Bruce.)

He created (or recreated) armor. The main suit for himself, easily recognizable with the gold and red colors. One that was made for him specifically. It could never work for anyone else. It was coded into his DNA, much like the Mark VIII armor. The only difference was that now because he was getting professional help for his anxiety (not Bruce, because apparently he "wasn't that kind of doctor") he and Pepper wouldn't be getting anymore late-night surprises.

Yes, he wiped clean the slate. No, that did not mean the end of Iron Man.

Yes, he was a changed man. No, that didn't mean some things would never change.

The answers came to him in a dream.

Pepper lovingly wrapped her arms around his armor-free torso, lightly sneaking a kiss on the back of his neck. He turned around and saw the necklace that signified that he indeed had a heart, and that it belonged to Pepper.

So how could said woman deal with his hero complex? How was she not terrified for him?

Because now, if things got out of hand, she could help him.

He had lovingly named her armor _Rescue._

_**Yep. I went there. **__**Don't forget to review/favorite... just saying. :)**__**Thanks for reading.**_

_**hopeistheway**_


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